Signals and Signs
by whokilledlaurapalmer
Summary: Eyes are the window to the soul - that is, if Hannah England even has one. Amanda takes it upon herself to find out. Amanda/Hannah
1. Green

Amanda O'Neill learned from experience not to expect anything from anyone.

Anticipation constantly trailed down to disappointment; people didn't show up, plans fell through, those you loved would always let you down somehow, and like her dad always said, "When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me."

She always liked that one, she couldn't help but snicker every time she heard it. Even now.

Well, at least she didn't _pretend_ to be mature. If Amanda was going to exist as the loud and brash and crude (American) one, she was going to own it. Why deny who you were? She really couldn't stand that about some people. Though 'some people' usually boiled down to a few - and those few happened to be wearing the same blue sash and sauntering down the hall, the shorter two following their blonde, British beauty queen like two ducklings on their mother's tail. Pathetic, really. If their noses could point up any higher, Amanda would've thought they were doing an observational study on the brightness of the sun.

But that made no sense - they were indoors. Amanda laughed at the thought anyway, high and childish and nasally. The brunette of the dog pack heard this and snapped her head around like a rubber band pulled taut and let loose. Brown eyes met emerald in the several feet separating them, Amanda slowed her gait and merely smiled her usual wily grin. Hannah England paused, contemplated, and sneered, rolling her eyes as if they were joining her nose in the act of cloud gazing.

Barbara Parker noticed her other half slow and whipped her head back, though with less sharpness, to meet Amanda. As if a mirror, her expression of disgust mimicked that of her friend.

 _Shoo, mutts, keep following your master!_ Amanda so badly wanted to say. _Aroof aroof, get doggies, get!_ Instead she snickered again at the thought, which of course, annoyed the blue-clad sycophants even more. If she had been feeling more lucky, she would've kept laughing, just to piss them both off as much as she could. Admittedly, it was nice seeing them break their usual snot-nosed, holier-than-thou composure.

Diana Cavendish. Now _she_ was tricky. So tricky that Amanda had given up on trying to get under Diana's skin a long time ago. Although, if she managed it, there was no way she would forget such a memorable achievement.

 _That'd be the day_. Amanda thought again, folding her arms over her chest and winking at the two lap dogs with a wave. _Grr, grr, run along now._

Barbara huffed in her usual and often predictable annoyance, hurrying to catch up with Diana. Hannah followed, yet found herself turning back repeatedly to catch Amanda's eyes again in the clamor of other girls. They locked stares. It was then, in the thick fog of the usual judgmental statements that popped up in Hannah's brain, that one stood out harsh against the others, a bright hue in a sea of monochrome, bubbling under the dark water:

 _Green was a nice color._

Hannah shook her head, tore her eyes away, and tucked a loose strand of brown hair behind her ear, moving to keep pace with the other girls.

Amanda's eyes lingered and lingered and lingered until the flock disappeared from her sight. Then, and only then, did she continue toward her destination. A different flavor of a smile reached up her face this time and a new shade found her cheeks.

But it would be fleeting, she knew, just as it was with the other girls. Those who she had stared at too long in the past. After all, she knew better than to expect anything could come of this. Nothing ever came of the girls here. She knew. She had tried.

Even still, she wouldn't deny the excitement of it, the slight thrum in the chest, the way she breathed in deep for a moment and held it, like keeping a memory in. A blink, a glance, a micro-expression.

A signal. A sign.


	2. Splinter

It was an anomaly.

Not the fact that Amanda had gotten herself into another punishment, no, that was normal. It was also normal for her and Akko to get into one of their usual spats with Luna Nova's star brown-nosers, Hannah and Barbara, as well as it was normal for something to evidently blow up as a result. This time it was Sucy's in-progress itching potion, which upon its explosion, did as what one would expect. Between scratches to her sides, Professor Lukić pointed the four of them toward Professor Finnelan's office with one of her sharp, purple nails.

Yes, this was all expected of Amanda.

What was _really_ strange was they had been split up differently; usually it was her and Akko that got paired together for their punishment. Obviously, today, Finnelan was feeling creative and decided to split them differently, pairing her and Hannah off instead.

 _Oh God, help me._

The two of them had been tasked with cleaning the bathrooms. Great. Amanda shoved a mop into Hannah's hands, who sneered in response.

"Ugh," Hannah wrinkled her nose. "Gross."

"Are you talking about me or the punishment?" Amanda quirked a brow and folded her arms.

"You really want me to answer that?" Hannah said, putting a hand on her hip.

They looked at one another for a moment before Amanda gave up and groaned, picking up her own mop and dipping it into the bucket of sudsy water.

"Hope you can function without tweedle-dum, otherwise this might take a while," Amanda said through a pointed smile, her eyes shiny and wide and curious, like a cat with a new toy. She lifted her mop and wrung it out. Hannah's eyes moved to Amanda's hand, watching the muscles move as she twisted the fabric. She snapped her gaze back to her own mop, dipping it in the bucket as well and doing the same.

"Funny," Hannah rolled her eyes. "I dunno why Professor Finnelan decided to pair us, but I can already tell that this is going to be the _worst_ hour of my life."

"Guess she's adapting," Amanda snickered, dragging her mop lazily back and forth over the tiled floor. "Although, I'll admit that you being constantly annoyed sounds like the funnest hour for _me_. "

Hannah twisted her face up, huffed sharply, and then spun around on her heels, scrubbing at the floor with her mop a tad harder than she needed to. Twirling her mop in her hand, Amanda smirked, proceeding to flick droplets all over the place as she spun herself to face the other direction. Hannah felt a few hit her face and grimaced.

"Hey, watch it with that thing!" Hannah scolded, turning her head.

"Oh- my apologies, _Princess_ ," Amanda teased, resting her mop over her shoulders. "Or is that title only reserved for Diana?"

"Ha, that's something, coming from someone who spends all of flying class doing stupid tricks to get attention," Hannah turned around and her hand found her hip again. "Acting like some big, hot-shot celebrity. I guess Americans really _are_ self-absorbed."

Scowling with clenched teeth, Amanda took a large step over the bucket. Closer to Hannah.

 _"You_ would know all about tricks, considering you're one of Diana's lap dogs," Amanda took another step. Now they stood only inches apart from one another. Their eyes met again, and Amanda felt her breath go in sharply. "By the way, I'm curious, which side of Diana's ass do you kiss? Or do you and Barbara alternate sides-?"

 _Whap!_

Without hesitation, Hannah whipped her water-soaked mop head down onto Amanda's shoes.

"Hey! What the-?" Amanda shivered at the sudden sensation of ice-cold water and immediately stepped away, perplexed, examining her now drenched shoes as they squished with every step. _"Ugh."_

"My apologies," Hannah said, then curtsied with the snarkiest grin before resuming her task.

Amanda glared back at her, her eyes wide with shock as she began to take off her shoes to pour the excess water out of them.

Once she wrung out her socks and tossed them into the sink, she shoved her mop back into the bucket, almost breaking the handle as she practically _ground_ it into the floor. Too bad Hannah had already turned around again. Now Amanda could only aim her death-glare at the back of her head.

Regaining her composure proved difficult, since she knew if she took it any further, they'd both end up in Finnelan's office again with broken mops, soaked clothes, and a harsher punishment. So Amanda did what she loathed, and tried to calm down, mentally cursing at Hannah as she continued staring at her head, her eyes following the way her ponytail bobbed as she moved her arms to clean. Amanda's mind couldn't help but flash back to the other day and how Hannah had looked at her like she was trying to read something - understand something about her. It was peculiar that that memory hovered, rising up out of all the other ones.

No, this certainly couldn't have been the same girl who stared too long; curious.

No. It wasn't her.

She felt her eyes drag from Hannah's hair down to her waist, lingering a bit too long before she abruptly interrupted herself by slapping her palm to her face, annoyed at her own lack of self-control.

 _Be good, Amanda, damn it._ Was there any girl at Luna Nova that she hadn't ogled at? At this point, she doubted it.

So unfair. As far as Amanda knew, she was the only lesbian at Luna Nova. Of course, she didn't know for sure, but after many failed attempts of asking the girls here out, she was beginning to cut her losses.

 _This is a nightmare,_ she had thought to herself, _heaven and hell all at once._ _I'm stuck in a school with beautiful girls and they're all_ straight!

Though, she could appreciate the girls who told her upfront. At least they didn't throw useless 'maybes' in the air like some of the others had before. Maybes were stupid answers, because they weren't answers at all. Amanda stopped wasting time on maybes.

 _"Oh, Amanda, you're so cool and smooth - such a flirt, too."_

 _"Maybe if I was curious…"_

 _"Maybe if you were a boy…"_

 _"Maybe in the future…"_

Bullshit. All of it was bullshit. A waste of time. Because whenever she held them to it, they backed away. It was entertaining for them to tease the gay girl with non-existent scenarios, but not actually _be_ with her or _mean_ what they said. Amanda seethed, twisting her hands tight around the handle until they ached.

"I think that spot is clean enough," Hannah interrupted her train of thought, facing her again.

Amanda looked up at her and then back down at the section of floor that she'd been furiously scrubbing at for a few minutes now. With a heavy exhale, she moved her mop slightly to the left and began cleaning again.

"There," Amanda's voice was curt. "Happy?"

"No."

"Too bad."

They resumed mopping their respective areas in silence, approaching one another only to dip into the bucket and retreat. Hopefully, it would stay that way until they finished.

 _"Ack!"_ Hannah yelped, grabbing her hand as her mop clattered to the floor. "Ow, ow, ow, jeez."

"Whoa-" Amanda didn't really give anything a second thought, she dropped what she was doing and walked over to Hannah, peering over her shoulder. The handle had given her a splinter. A real big, ugly one at that. "That looks painful-"

"Really? You think so?" Hannah snapped, sarcasm dripping off her words, holding her hand closer to her chest. She sucked in a breath through her teeth; the splinter had wedged itself in good.

"Let me see," Amanda said, again, not really thinking about the fact this girl not only couldn't stand her, but had also recently soaked her shoes in water.

"Hell no, back off," Hannah scowled and stepped away, staring at her hand and whining to herself like a wounded animal.

"Seriously, let me see-" Amanda said, no trace of nonsense in her voice. "I get 'em all the time from broom-riding."

"...Fine," Hannah tenderly touched her finger, squeezing at it a bit and wincing.

"Don't squeeze- here-" Amanda took Hannah's hand with an unexpected gentleness, it was colder and a bit smoother than her own; less calloused. Quickly ignoring the fact that she was practically holding a girl's hand, she focused on the splinter that was wedged deep into the skin. "If you squeeze, you risk splitting the wood," she continued, not really caring if Hannah was listening or not. "You gotta gently push out from the opposite side of entry…" she trailed off as she looked closely at the finger.

After they washed their hands, Hannah allowed Amanda to attempt to remove the splinter. Surprisingly, the pain faded out when Hannah let her eyes move up from her hand to Amanda's face; it was fascinating, noticing the way she chewed her lip when she was fully focused, her eyes were bright and alert under creased eyebrows as she delicately worked the splinter out with her nails, moving as carefully as possible. A few seconds passed and Amanda smiled with satisfaction, holding up the tiny piece of wood.

"Got it!"

Hannah brought her hand to her face, shocked at how fast it was removed and how almost painless it was.

"Wow," Hannah said, holding her now splinter-free hand under the running tap. "How did you do that so fast?"

Amanda shrugged. "Like I said, I get them a lot, so I'm used to removing them."

"Well," Hannah found it difficult to look Amanda in her eyes again. "I appreciate it. So… thanks."

"Yeah," Amanda's voice fell a bit, caught off guard by the genuine words. "No problem."

"Sorry about your shoes…"

"It's fine," Amanda paused. "Sorry about what I said earlier."

"Yeah, me too," Hannah said and paused. "We should get back to cleaning before they have Diana check on us."

"Yeah, good idea."

The rest of the hour flew by fast, since Amanda was finally given time to process the entirety of the unique interaction that had taken place. She couldn't remember the last time she had a civil conversation with Hannah, or if they ever had one at all. Even if she was just being polite, Amanda counted that as the nicest thing Hannah England ever said to her.

And when Professor Finnelan gave them to okay to leave, Amanda was almost disappointed her punishment was over.

 _Almost._


End file.
